Location services are known in mobile wireless networks particularly for providing location based information to users of the network. Certain location based information services rely upon the periodic provision of a user's location.
Traffic and navigation applications are two typical examples of location services utilising periodic location updates. For example in traffic guidance applications, e.g. finding optimal road routes, and fleet management, e.g. taxi or delivery services, the provision of location-based information is an essential part of content offering.
Such periodic location based services are typically based on essentially constant updates of location information. In navigation applications the location of the user must be updated frequently otherwise the road assistance, e.g. ‘turn left at next junction’) is not accurate or useful. Similarly in fleet management the update period is typically in the region of ten's of seconds or minutes depending on the application, and therefore updates are very frequent.
Some periodic tracking applications, however, have relatively long periods between location updates. For example child tracking or business user tracking are examples where the update period may be hours or even days.
Current location services (LCS) specifications offer very limited control possibilities for this sort of periodic positioning. In practice only single requests are supported. No account is taken of the type of location services required.
In addition in most scenarios producing single requests causes excessive signalling within the network resources, and thereby results in poor resource usage.
Embodiments of the present invention aim to address one or more of the above problems and to provide an improved location update request control.